First it was Sen. Barack Obama. Now Sen. John McCain is having to apologize for using the word “wasted” to describe the sacrifice of U.S. troops lost in Iraq.
McCain made the comment Wednesday on CBS’ “Late Show With David Letterman,” where he said, “Americans are very frustrated, and they have every right to be. We’ve wasted a lot of our most precious treasure, which is American lives.”
Democrats demanded he apologize, as Republicans earlier demanded of Obama. McCain later issued a statement making the standard assurances about respect for the troops. “I should have used the word ‘sacrificed,’ as I have in the past,” he said.
Is this the level of debate we can expect on Iraq during this presidential campaign — a superficial “gotcha” tit for tat? And if so, are we really a serious country?
Let’s agree that every American honors the troops’ sacrifice, no matter the circumstances. But let’s not inoculate our leaders from accountability by using the politically correct but historically false “our troops never die in vain” defense.
Common sense tell us that’s not true, even if it’s difficult to admit.
Political correctness shouldn’t prevent anyone from stating the obvious: American (and Iraqi) lives have been wasted in this war because of recklessness, mistakes and poor planning.
Speaking this truth doesn’t reflect poorly on the troops. It does reflect poorly on our leaders.
Posted by Randy Scholfield
President Bush returned to the Gulf Coast Thursday, his 14th visit since Hurricane Katrina but his first trip to New Orleans in six months. Though he talked a lot about progress, he acknowledged that one of the â??things Iâ??ve heard loud and clear is that thereâ??s a continued frustration with the slowness of federal response at times.â?Â
Continued frustration? Slowness of federal response at times? The situation there is a quagmire.
The $110 billion that has been allocated to the region shouldnâ??t be downplayed in any way; itâ??s a chunk of money. But maybe the president should sit down with state and local politicians — and not leave — until they come up with a plan as to how to better utilize the funds. Construction crews should not be working on the same block they were a year and a half ago, right after the storm hit.
Posted by Ross Stewart
The fact that the Bush administration has been working on a bombing plan for Iran should not be much of a shocker, given that it considers Iran to be part of the “axis of evil.” An article in the Guardian reports that the plan would only need 24 hours’ notice to go into effect.
It all sounds too familiar, though, in a New Yorker article by Seymour Hersh, who quotes a senior Pentagon adviser on the war on terror saying that “this White House believes that the only way to solve the problem is to change the power structure in Iran, and that means war.”
Does the bombing plan include the need for concrete evidence before a strike, as the International Atomic Energy Agency is asking for, or is that facet of a political and military program being overlooked?
Posted by Ross Stewart
As a Sunday Eagle article by Roy Wenzl showed, many boys are being left behind in schools and failing in life. Why?
The data is disturbing: Boys have a 30 percent higher chance than girls of dropping or flunking out and are five times more likely to be labeled hyperactive.
The changes under way in our schools are part of the problem. The No Child Left Behind law, with its mind-numbing emphasis on rote learning, note-taking and test-taking, rewards skills at which girls tend to excel.
We argued in an editorial Wednesday that schools and parents must hang in there with struggling boys and work harder to reconnect with them.
Posted by Randy Scholfield
Although the office of Secretary of State Ron Thornburgh knows of no documented cases of illegal immigrants voting in Kansas, it’s likely that a Senate-passed bill aimed at stopping such voting will clear the House and reach Gov. Kathleen Sebelius’ desk, according to state Sen. Tim Huelskamp (in photo), R-Fowler. The bill would require Kansans to show photo ID before voting and show proof of citizenship before registering. And “I don’t know why, other than pure politics, that it would be vetoed by the governor,” Huelskamp told Harris News Service.
Here’s why: There are no known cases of illegal immigrants voting in the state.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
A suspect, chased down by police officers, kicks, hits, screams and tears his clothes off, becoming increasingly agitated and violent. As the man is subdued, he becomes irrational, his temperature and heart rate spike, and he drops dead.
This scenario has become increasingly frequent since the 1980s, when cocaine use in the United States soared. Law enforcement officers and medical examiners have been using the term “excited delirium” to describe the cause of death of some people who have died while being apprehended.
Because excited delirium is not a medically recognized condition, some believe that law enforcement agencies are using the term to cover up incidents of police brutality.
In the first of a two-part National Public Radio series on the issue, Dawn Edwards of the Ella Baker Center, a police watchdog group in Oakland, Calif., said: “They want the victim to be looked at as the cause of his or her own death. . . . If the police take a person into custody, they need to make sure the person stays alive.”
What do you think?
Posted by Patrice Hein
